FKA twigs details alleged domestic abuse from Shia LaBeouf which 'left her with PTSD' in interview

FKA twigs has alleged in a new interview that she was left with PTSD after splitting from Shia LaBeouf just a month after filing a lawsuit against the actor for ‘relentless abuse.’

The 33-year-old British singer – real name Tahliah Debrett Barnett – appeared on the Grounded With Louis Theroux podcast on Monday as she bravely detailed her relationship with the 34-year-old actor.

On December 11, 2020, she sued him for physical, mental, and emotional abuse. LaBeouf said at the time that many allegations against him are untrue, but did add that he has to ‘accept accountability for those things I have done.’

The two met in 2018 on set of his film Honey Boy as she claimed on the podcast that they had ‘an intense honeymoon period’ before things started to change.

twigs started to become aware of him becoming more ‘jealous ad controlling’ as she started to notice the ‘little things you could do wrong that could take away from the happiness.

‘For me it was being nice to a waiter or being polite to somebody that could be seen as me flirting or want to engage in some sort of relationship with somebody else when I’m literally just ordering pasta and being polite.

‘I was told that I knew what he was like, and if I loved him I wouldn’t look men in the eye. So that was my reality for a good four months towards the end of the relationship, that I wasn’t allowed to look men in the eye.’ 

She went on to explain that she would look at the ground when out in public together and even began to isolate herself from her friends and family.

Twigs explained: ‘I just was living a very regimented and contained life that I felt got me in the least trouble.’

She also claimed that she was expected to meet a daily quota of affection and even said that LaBeouf expected her to kiss him a certain number of times and reiterate how much she cared for him several times but somehow it still wasn’t enough.

The Mirrored Heart hitmaker said: ‘He would wake me up in the night to accuse me of all sorts of things.

 ‘Accuse me of staring at the ceiling and thinking about ways to leave him… accusing me of wanting to be with somebody else but it would be, always – I’d say between like four and seven in the morning.’

Twigs claimed that this has all took its toll on her for a period of time even after their relationship had ended.

She said: ‘For a long time anything that woke me up in the night, even if it was just my dog, or a noise outside, or just needing to go to the bathroom, it could trigger a really intense panic attack.

‘I was left with PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] from that, which again is just something that I don’t think we really talk about as a society just in terms of the healing when leaving, and how much work that has to be done to recover, to get back to the person that you were before.’ 

The talented artist said that she never imagined going through anything like that previously to her relationship with LaBeouf.

She said: ‘All I can do is just think about myself when I’m 50 years old [and] I’ve got kids, I think about what I want to have stood for.

‘This is something that was completely unexpected. I never thought anything like this would happen to me… when I’m older, if I have a daughter, I want to be able to say, ‘This thing happened to me. And I dealt with
it.’ It’s a big thing to heal publicly and have to do it in front of everyone, but I can do it. I’m a big girl and I can do it.’

Twigs also said she thought the though of leaving him was ‘genuinely impossible.’ 

She explained: ‘I felt so controlled and I felt so confused and I felt so low, beneath myself, that the fear of leaving and knowing I had all this work to do to get back to just feeling okay, it was completely overwhelming.’

On December 11, 2020 FKA twigs filed a lawsuit against Shia, accusing the actor of ‘relentless abuse,’ according to People.

The lawsuit, first obtained by The New York Times, was filed at the Los Angeles Superior Court with the singer alleging that Shia physically and sexually assaulted her and battered her.

The British artist claimed he knowingly gave her a sexually transmitted disease during their year long relationship.

The exes began dating in 2018 after she was cast in his movie Honey Boy and they split in spring 2019, with the singer saying she found the courage to leave him with the help of a therapist.

In the court documents, FKA alleged that he had a gun next to his bedside while they slept and feared he would shoot her if she went to the bathroom thinking she was an intruder, as well as an allegation that he squeezed her arm ‘to the point of bruising’ and ‘violently’ grabbed her when she attempted to move out.

She also alleged he threw her against his car at a gas station and berated her in public. 

‘What I went through with Shia was the worst thing I’ve ever been through in the whole of my life,’ she said to The New York Times via People. ‘I don’t think people would ever think that it would happen to me. But I think that’s the thing. It can happen to anybody.’  

Shia told The New York Times ‘many’ of the allegations were not true, and that he has ‘no excuses for my alcoholism or aggression, only rationalizations. I have been abusive to myself and everyone around me for years. I have a history of hurting the people closest to me. I’m ashamed of that history and am sorry to those I hurt. There is nothing else I can really say.’

The actor also said that he owed the women ‘the opportunity to air their statements publicly and accept accountability for those things I have done,’ according to NYT.  

Shia also told NYT that he was currently in therapy and in a 12-step program, although he is ‘not cured of my PTSD and alcoholism.’